Following his mother's early death, "Henry" as he was called, was raised by his father's second wife, Elizabeth Chapin Lee. 3

From Carol Laun: He enlisted in Company E of the 16th Connecticut Volunteers in July 1862, along with 19 other young men from Granby. In 1864 the 16th was defeated in North Carolina and the Granby soldiers who were captured were sent to the prison of infamy called Andersonville. Henry suffered from poor health as a result of his imprisonment in Andersonville and died a victim of diseases contracted in prison - hepatitis, serious gastric problems, bronchial and lung ailments. His cause of death was listed as consumption (tuberculosis). His apparent place of death was Lansing, Iowa, but his remains were returned to Granby and he is buried in the Center Cemetery. His name was added to the monument on the Green.

Lee was a twenty-one-year-old unmarried farmer who, like Lewis Holcomb, maintained a steady correspondence with their cousin Addie Holcomb. He would become one of the most respected members of the unit, credited with urging the prisoners at Andersonville not to sign a petition to request the federal government to restart paroles. In May 1863, Lee wrote Addie, "Soldiers are taught to anticipate nothing, but act in the capacity of a machine. They cannot act their own will, and being aware of te fact, hardly care to think of themselves." Lee died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-five.4